English National Curriculum KS1 and KS2

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-english-programmes-of-study

Reading at Rice Lane Primary School

At Rice Lane Primary, our ultimate aim is for the children to become confident and independent readers who demonstrate high levels of enjoyment, understanding and comprehension, and for them to understand that reading is a life-long skill.

“We learn to read so that we can read to learn.”

We have a clear, consistent, whole school approach to the teaching of reading.

Reading is closely linked with writing – the two activities reinforce each other. Both skills are strengthened by using a text based approach to teaching English - see writing section. 

Children become successful readers by using a range of strategies to analyse the meaning of the text. At Rice Lane Primary School we believe that literate children should read with confidence, fluency, expression and clear understanding. In order to achieve this they need to be taught the full range of reading strategies, including:

• phonic knowledge (visual information) - see phonics section
• grammatical knowledge (structural information) - see grammar section
• word recognition and graphic knowledge (visual information) 
• contextual knowledge (meaning)

During shared, whole class and independent reading, teachers teach these skills and monitor pupils’ reading to allow them to:

• Develop an interest in words and their meanings, developing a varied and rich vocabulary.
• Read a range of genres in fiction and poetry
• Understand, use and are able to access information in a range of non-fiction texts.
• Develop their own powers of imagination, inventiveness and critical awareness.
• Discuss books with reference to author, illustrator, genre, theme and characters and express personal responses with increasing fluency and confidence.
• The children see the reading process being modeled by their teacher and participate in activities with the whole class, as a member of a smaller group or individually.
• The children have a suitable technical vocabulary through which to understand and discuss their reading - this vocabulary is deliberately taught to the children.
• The children are actively encouraged to show an interest in books, read with enjoyment and evaluate/justify their preferences.

Class Libraries

Each class has its own reading area, which allows pupils to access a range of age-appropriate fiction and non-fiction texts. Books are rotated to maintain interest. Pupils have been involved in suggesting themes for their reading areas, which have been developed through a project with the English subject leader.

Whole School Libraries

The school has library in both KS1 and KS2. Children are regularly encouraged to choose books to read. The school has a 'Pod' reading space which is well stocked with high quality books suitable for all of our children. A timetable is available for teachers to access this with their class. This area also enjoys open access at lunch-time where children are able to enjoy reading a book. A member of staff is on duty to recommend books and talk about stories.  

Working in Partnership with Parents and Carers

The teaching of reading is greatly helped if there is strong communication and support between home and school. Reading workshops are held for parents offering advice on the reading strategies used at the school and how parents and carers can best support their children at home.

Promoting Reading

Each class has a 10 or 15 minute timetable slot allocated for the children to read a book of their own choice. It is also an expectation that each teacher reads a 'class reader' to their class every day. Where possible this will be from a full class set of books. We are increasing our stock of these books year on year. 

The school takes part in regular promotional events designed to encourage the love of reading. These include competitions and whole school events around Book Week, World Book Day, author events, holding annual Book Fairs and joint projects with other local schools.

For further information on reading, including recommended reading lists for primary age children visit our other sections of this page.